Coco Gauff was on the brink. Twice.
Two match points down, a set down, and being bullied around her own court by a fearless teenager, the defending US Open champion stood a few points from the exit. Then she did what New York has already learned to expect from her: she dug in, stared down the moment, and turned a crisis into a statement.
Gauff beat Mirra Andreeva 2-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-2 in a wild, lurching quarter-final that veered from rout to scrap to coronation, booking a semi-final against incoming world number one Elena Rybakina.
From rout to resistance
For 26 minutes, Gauff barely existed in the match.
Andreeva, 17 and utterly unfazed, tore through the opening set. She rushed Gauff’s forehand, took time away, and walked off with a 6-2 lead that felt even more brutal than the scoreline. The fourth seed looked flat, late, and strangely disconnected from the night-session energy that usually lifts her in New York.
The second set didn’t immediately offer rescue. Gauff earned breaks. She lost them back. Twice. The errors piled up, the rallies frayed, and the match turned scrappy rather than spectacular.
But she refused to go away.
The tension peaked in a 16-point tie-break that felt like the match compressed into a few minutes – Gauff edging ahead, Andreeva answering, both players flirting with the finish line and then backing away. Gauff saved two match points, attacked when she had to, and finally snatched the breaker 9-7. The stadium erupted. The teenager on the other side of the net suddenly looked human.
The pressure had finally told.
Crowd, grit, and a turning tide
Once level, Gauff played like a champion again.
Roared on by a partisan crowd that sensed the shift, she tightened her game, cleaned up the cheap errors and began to dictate. The rallies grew longer, the American’s defence turned suffocating, and Andreeva’s shot selection frayed under the weight of it all.
What had been a mental battle swung decisively Gauff’s way. The decider, 6-2, told the story: the defending champion now in full control, the teenager struggling to land a final punch.
Afterwards, Gauff pointed to a familiar source of inspiration: another American comeback under the lights.
"At the end of the first set I was thinking about Frances and how he came back yesterday," she said, referencing Frances Tiafoe’s turnaround win over Alex Michelsen on Tuesday night. "We all want to do well in front of this crowd. Honestly, I was just trying to leave the court with no regrets."
She didn’t. She walked off with a place in the last four and a reminder of why New York has become her stage.
Back-to-back majors, heavyweight last four
This run marks back-to-back Grand Slam semi-finals for Gauff, a two-time major champion, and her first US Open semi since she lifted the trophy here in 2023. The defending champion now stands two wins from a successful defence, something that would harden her status at the very top of the women’s game.
She will have to go through the new standard-bearer to get there.
Earlier in the day, second seed Elena Rybakina absorbed her own scare, dropping a set for the first time this tournament and falling break-point down in the decider against Zheng Qinwen. The Wimbledon champion steadied, found her range, and powered through 3-6 6-1 6-4.
Rybakina’s win completed a rare alignment at the top of the draw. With Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula already through, this is the first time since Wimbledon 2009 that the top four seeds have all reached the semi-finals of a women’s singles major.
Four elite contenders. One defending champion. One incoming world number one.
Gauff and Rybakina now meet with New York as their witness and the sport’s balance of power very much in play.
